>> eric: "barack america." >> greg: that is what he is. >> dana: like captain america. san francisco giants a baseball team? >> bob: joe biden. >> andrea: he is an easy target. >> dana: we got to go. that is it for us. thank you for watching. see you tomorrow. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> bret: rick perry bows out. newt gingrich's ex-wife speaks out. rick santorum wins apparently. this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> bret: good evening. i'm bret baier. the dynamic the republican presidential race is fluid at this hour. earlier in the day, texas governor rick perry called it quits and threw his support behind newt gingrich. gingrich has two potential problems on the horizon. an ex-wife with an apparent grudge, and a conservative

rival with an apparent victory. chief political correspondent carl cameron is covering a busy day on the campaign trail. >> reporter: running last in south carolina polls, texas governor rick perry ended his presidential bid. >> today, i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. i believe newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country. we have had our differences which campaigns will inevitably have. newt is not perfect, but who among us is? >> reporter: gingrich hopes to unite south carolina conservatives as the romney alternative. >> i was very honored and very humbled to have governor perry speak so well about endorsing me. >> reporter: his predictions are increasingly bold. >> we will, in fact, win decisively on saturday. >> reporter: two new south carolina polls put gingrich ahead.

rasmussen called it 33/31 over romney with ron paul ahead of rick santorum. american research group shows similar numbers. still, the real clear politics average of south carolina polls suggests that romney maintains an edge. gingrich's second ex-wife mar maryman has gone public in 1999 after 18 years of marriage, gingrich sought her nowission to have an affais gingrich's third wife. >> he asked me for an open marriage and i refused. >> he wanted an open marriage? >> yes, that i accept the fact he has somebody else in his life. >> you said? >> no. no. that is not a marriage. >> i'm not going to say anything about marianne. my daughters have written to abc complaining about this as tawdry and inappropriate. >> he said this about the character flaws. >> vy been very open about my life and the mistakesvy made and very open about needing to go to god for forgiveness and seek reconciliation.

>> romney made no difference of gingrich other than mocking reference to president obama's disney world trip. >> he may run into speaker gingrich in fairy tale land. >> he exceeded expectation in january 3 caucuses, santorum exceeded the romney vote count. >> we defeated mitt romney in iowa. >> still, paul may be poised to take third place in the first southern primary. that would be a huge setback for santorum who could have his iowa triumph eclipsed should he come in dead last in south carolina saturday now that perry is out of the race. capping off this most eventful campaign day on the trail, debate tonight at the north charlton auditorium. the g.o.p. 2012 field is now down to four, bret? >> bret: most eventful by far. carl, thank you. one very coveted group of people in south carolina are

the so-called values voters. senior national correspondent john roberts tells us who they are and what they are saying tonight. >> today we are facing epic battle for direction of our nation. >> rick santorum got a big endorsement today. gone servetive leader gary bauer throwing weight behind the senator. but even amongst ardent supporter, anxiety over whether gingrich is the safer bet. >> if i had my choice there wouldn't a question. i'd definitely go with rick santorum but i just don't want it to be romney. >> santorum and gingrich are competing for same pool of support. even gel calls and social -- evangelicals and social conservatives in. 2008 they made up six of ten voters here and they don't vote as a block. brown is a pastor at the east cooper baptist church outside charleston. >> i think our dna is to be independent, various denominations and think differently on many areas. we don't follow one particular

called-out leader. >> the independent streak frustrated attempts by christian conservatives to coalesce around a single candidate. in 2008, values vote split and john mccain won south carolina. gingrich supporter j.c. watt says it's frustrating. >> we match, you know, defeat out of the jaws of victory. we have been known to do that as well. i do think this election, i think it's going to be much, much different. >> how different remains to be seen. last weekend meeting of even gel call and conservative leaders voted to support santorum. that endorsement quickly broke down to bickering over how the vote was conducted. family research council president tony perkins was spokesman for the group. >> it will be up to the voters to decide if they will follow what happened in houston and coalesce around one candidate. >> so far, there is no indication that will happen. while gingrich is surging in the polls, could enough support go to santorum to deny

conservative victory? >> do you think it could happen in 2012? >> that is what i'm afraid of. that is the big question. do you go with the one who looks like he can beat romney or go with your heart? >> that anyone but romney attitude could provoke a shift between now and saturday. not all evangelicals are so concerned about a romney win. consider this, from pastor brown, who is leaning toward santorum. >> i think governor romney is a man of proven integrity and a man of deep character. so i do not think it would be a disaster if he is a nominee. >> some social conservative reconciliation even quietly supporting romney. remember, this is the state where some counties have unemployment rate above 14%. it is said that the social conservative votes their heart, not their heads. come saturday, some may vote their wallets. >> thank you. >> as carl cameron alluded to, we are two days from the third nominating contest of the election season. we still do not know for sure

who won the first one. or do we? correspondent steve brown reports on today's news about the iowa caucuses. >> guess what? we defeated mitt romney in iowa. [ applause ] >> today, rick santorum declared caucus victory in iowa's republican chairman did confirm the math. >> there is no question among those precincts we are able to certify, rick santorum received more vote on caucus night. >> in the eye of the iowa g.o.p. it's a split decision because while santorum now holds a slim 34-vote edge over mitt romney, votes from eight precincts were not counted because official paperwork was not turned in before yesterday's deadline. >> each of the 1774 precincts receive what is called a form "e" certification form and that document is signed by the precinct chair and the precinct secretary and delivered to the county chairman. >> of the eight precincts without certification paperwork, four are county in eastern iowa where the local

chairman say they were electronically turned in on caucus night but not the forms. >> they did not turn out the forms. the forms are a waste of paper. >> the rules say no paperwork no, votes and so santorum leads and is not declared the winner. romney campaign called at it virtual tie. disappointment is what some political observers call it. >> most people are sin can about politics anyway. when they see something like this, the results changing weeks afterwards with eight missing precincts a lot of people ask questions. >> and today, romney called santorum to offer congratulations for the iowa vote. santorum took it as a concession, but the romney campaign insists it was not. so the iowa caucus campaign has a certified leader but no winner. congratulatory phone call but no concession. steve brown, fox news. >> bret: while republican candidates continue effort to put president obama on a permanent vacation, the

president was in one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world. taking steps to try to hold on to his job. here is chief white house correspondent ed henry. >> reporter: president obama said he was going to disney world for an official event touting new steps to boost tourism. >> that means jobs. >> more money spent by more tourists means more businesses can hire more workers. >> republicans mocked it as a campaign stop. >> flanked on one side by mickey mouse. on the other side by goofy. resembling sort of a cabinet picture of the obama administration. >> after next tuesday's "state of the union," president will head to five more battleground state on top of the stop today in florida where the quinnipiac poll shows he has disapproval rating of 54%. perhaps why his campaign today launched $1 million of tv ads. >> president obama promised to toughen ethics rules and

strengthen the economy. >> expensive buy comes as the top lobbyists for hollywood exclusively told fox his industry is threatening to cut off money to the president. >> don't make the false assumption this year that because we did it in years past we'll do hit the year. >> former senator chris dodd and content providers like news corp., the parent company of fox news pushing for antipiracy legislation, known as sopa to protect the copyrighted materials. tech companies charge it's censorship. when the white house mentioned concerns that tipped in favor of them, dodd was furious. >> the industry is watching carefully who is going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. >> hollywood so far ponied up over $4.1 million to the obama camp. already higher than the $3.67 million it shelled out in 2008. fox learned from democratic sources, several tech companies attended a fundraiser for president last friday. one day before the white house criticized the legislation.

obama campaign official told fox tech money did not influence the decision and friday's event had both supporters who worked for technology companies and those who do not. the officials stressed the president does not take money from lobbyists and his campaign is fueled by donations for more than 1.3 million americans. >> tonight, the president is in new york. fundraising with celebrities like spike lee. officials say he will take in more than $3 million. a sign even if hollywood cuts off money he has plenty to work with. >> bret: ed henry live in the north lawn. thank you. republican governor mitch daniels will give his party's response to the president's "state of the union" message next week. daniels flirted with the idea of a presidential run but decided against the run last spring. not even congress' gift shop can stay out of the red. that is later in the grapevine. up next, why many small business owners are seeing red over the president's healthcare law. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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a new survey shows that americans are growing increasingly concerned about the healthcare law and the impact on their bottom line. along with taxation and regulation as obstacles to hiring, 74% says the healthcare lawrents impediment to job creation. >> they look at this as a tax bill wrapped up and packageed as a healthcare reform bill. it puts most of the cost and burden on small business owners. >> in washington this morning, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius touted the benefit realized because of the law. suggested that perception about it is skewed because opponents waged relentless attacks from the time the measure was drafted. >> after years of smears and information, there is still far too many americans who don't know the basic facts about the law and the benefits that are available to them and

their families now. will be available if the future. >> sebelius says it contains benefit for small businesses. >> i can tell you we have many small businesses looking forward to new market to have the same political coverage as the competitors have. >> skeptics remain. >> there were great benefits when the law was written you would have seen ground swell support to pass the law but you saw the opposite. >> in a matter of weeks the supreme court will hear three days of oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of law. today, sebelius predicted it will be upheld and that once businesses have certainty about that, they'll embrace it. >> bret: we will cover every minute. thank you. sticking with the presidential politics, one of the comments that has gotten traction recently is newt gingrich's remark about president obama and food stamps.

tonight, correspondent doug mckelway looks at what gingrich said and whether it's true. >> you know as well as i do that is crazy. >> that's the white house response tuesday to one of newt gingrich's most pointed barbs at the fox news debate the previous night. >> more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. >> according to the department of agriculture, when president obama took office 31.9 million americans were on food stamps. it has been increase, by the same as the bush administration. white house says gingrich left out a key fact. >> when the president took the oath of office in 2009, the xy was freefall. >> food stamp usage has been rising for four decades, from 4.8 million in 19744 to 4.6 million today. in two presidents did the usage declined in the reagan administration it fell by 3 million and in clinton administration it fell by over

10 million. contary to some suggestions it's not increase due to increase population as much as it for increased poverty level. >> we are making poverty more comfortable instead of reducing poverty. food stamps is taking people who are poor to enable them to live better poor. instead of focusing on things like job creation to get people out of poverty. >> the white house points out it's not the federal government but states that administer the food stamp program. 43 states have relaxed eligibility standards in recent years. question of the racial insensitivity of food stamp workers, 42% are white, 17%, and 17% hispanic. in washington, doug mckelway, fox news. >> bret: still ahead a strange story. what a practicing witch did when her son brought a bible home from public school. first, why did the air force choose a foreign company over american one to build the next attack plane?

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>> bret: in international news, another audio recording emerged featuring the captain of the ill-fated cruise ship. the first communication after the vessel rammed a reef features a captain telling port official officials that thp was only experiencing a power blackout. meanwhile, maldovan woman who says she was with the captain after the accident occurred insist his actions saved more than 3,000 lives. a suicide attacker hit a u.s. and nato base in southern afghanistan today. the detonation of vehicle packed with explosives at a crowded entrance to the airfield killed seven civilians. the coalition says no nato troops were killed. mill their sources tell fox

news the u.s. marine helicopter went down late this evening in southern afghanistan. it's believed there were casualties. there were no reports of enemy activity in the area at the time. the chopper was a ch-53. on the home front a lot of people are upset about the decision over who will build a new air force plane. correspondent william la jeunesse is following the story from los angeles. >> air force had the brazilian mate against the hawker at-6, manufacturered in the wichita factory. ceo, bill. >> we think the planes are 35% more extensive than our airplanes. >> the figures aren't available but they awarded the contract to brazil. >> it will cost this country 1200 high quality jobs. why are you selecting an inferior product that costs more, made outside the united states where the u.s. taxpayer dollars are buying it? >> the super takono, they say

is better. >> this was a fair and open competition. in a side-by-side comparison of the two aircraft it's hands down the a-29, a for a superior aircraft. >> the pentagon apparently agreed telling fox it concluded that multiple deficiencies and significant weaknesses found in the proposal made it technically unacceptable and resulted in unacceptable mission risk. with 750 hawkers in use by the u.s. military, critics say the american company is victim of politics. >> in a global economy, the united states and brazil should expand trade. expand investment. so we create new jobs. new opportunities in both of our nations. >> awarding the contract, the u.s. overlooked brazil's u.n. voting record. it's close ties with iran and federal investigation of embrair for bribery and corruption. >> it's wrong when the people of america understand that obama is outsourcing the national security jobs they will be upset. >> they said this morning it won based on performance not

politics. hawker, however, is taking its unfairness claim to federal court. in los angeles, william la jeunesse, fox news. the republican governor of nebraska says the keystone xl project is far from dead. president obama wednesday said the pipeline is not in the national interest for now. governor dave heinamen says a new route has already been approved. >> i fully expect to get it done certainly in the august/early september time frame. i would send the letter back to the president of the united states, saying we approve it. and if he were device i, he could turn around and improve it shortly thereafter. well before the november election. >> bret: court documents obtained by fox news indicate judicial watch is suing the defense department and the cia for allegedly refusing to release details of supposed communications with the director of a planned movie about the killing of usama bin laden. also in a related judicial watch lawsuit, the pentagon and c.i.a. have told federal

court there are 52 unique photographs and video recordings from that raid that cannot be released because of national security concerns. house oversight committee chairman darrell issa issued subpoena to u.s. attorney's office in arizona over operation fast and furious. patrick cunningham is chief of the criminal division for the office. issa says the justice department accuse cunningham of giving them inaccurate and misleading information about the failed gun tracking program. vice president biden does it again. and why virginia is worried about the rats at the occupy b.c. encampment. the grapevine is next. and that it put me at 5-times greater risk of a stroke. i was worried. i worried about my wife, and my family. bill has the mos common type of atrial fiillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. he was taking warfarin, but i've put him on pradaxa instead.

in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mgs reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin without the need for regular blood tests. i sure was glad to hear that. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or bloodthinners, or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke ri. other side effects include indigestio stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa.

>> bret: now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. two gift shops at the u.s. capitol are losing money, even though 2 million people a year visit the complex. the hill reports lawmakers are now demanding a plan to make those shops profitable. office of the architect of the capitol faults the buy american restrictions that led to higher prices. taxpayers for common sense argues that there may be another reason for lagging sales. citing congress' 84% disapproval rating. it's hard to sell memorabilia of unpopular people. virginia attorney general is up in arms over a d.c. wildlife law he says is

crazier than fiction when it comes to protecting rats and rodents. the dust-up began over rat infestations at the occupy wall street encampment in downtown washington. he worries the law with how pest operators handle vermin may result in it being dumped in virginia. part of the law require live capture with creatures caught and transferred in family units. d.c. council woman who introduced the legislation maintains the law saying extermination has exception for rat and mice. the first rule of public speaking is know your audience. joe biden may have accidently thought he was speaking to new yorkers instead of the san francisco audience in a wednesday campaign event when he said the giants are on their way to the bowles. not great in san francisco since the 49ers play the giants this weekend. after some boo, he apologized

saying he got the baseball and football teams mixed up. he then said the san francisco 49ers are on their way to the big game. now to an unusual story in north carolina. correspondent jonathan serrie reports on the witch, the word and a public school facing a choice. >> reporter: in the small mountain town of weaverville, north carolina, ginger says she practices it with caft, a pagan -- witchcraft, pagan religion. the mother of six says that is why she got upset when her 12-year-old son came home from school with a gideon bible. >> they should not give out one religious material and not other. >> reporter: when she complained the school assured her they would give religious text donated by any group. but when she showed up with her pagan spell book she was turned away. school officials declined online interview. in a written statement they ad in the review period no school

in the system will be accepting donations of materials that could be viewed as advocating a particular religion or belief. legal experts say the first amendment gives public schools two clear choices. >> you can either open your public school up to all religious material, or you can say no religious material. but you can't say you can distribute religious material but only from the good old main stream. >> supporters of bibles in schools say they stick to american judeo christian heritage but even the traditional faith have divisions. >> many christians stood up, because as much as they may like the bible, they don't want jehovah witnesses coming in the watchtowers or catholics having them pray the rosary. >> they meet again on the 2nd and will discuss how to handle sensitive issue of religious texts in school.

billionaire history buff donated $7.5 million to help repair cracks in the washington monument caused by last summer's earthquake. the gift by businessman david rubenstein will be matched by funds from congress. to the other washington now on the other side of the country, a monster storm has coated the state with freezing rain, following nearly a foot of snow in some areas wednesday. seattle's airport shut down. tens of thousands are without power. hundreds of cars have slid off roads there. rick perry is out with a big endorsement of newt gingrich, as gingrich's second wife speaks out. a wild day on the campaign trail. we'll talk about it with the fox all-stars when we come back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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newt is not perfect but who among us is. the fact is there is forgiveness for those who seek god and i believe in the power of redemption. >> texas governor rick perry dropping out of the presidential race today in south carolina with a big endorsement. full endorsement of newt gingrich. and that last line powerful on a day newt gingrich's second wife, ex-wife, spoke with abc news. abc news starting putting out clips of her talking about the end of their marriage. here is one. >> i said to him, we have been married a long time.

and he said, "yes, but you want me all to yourself." calista doesn't cheat on what i do. >> what was he saying, do you think? >> he was asking to have an open marriage and i refused. >> he wanted an open marriage. >> that i accept the fact that he has somebody else in his life. >> you said? >> no. no. that is not a marriage. >> bret: abc news plans to run more of that interview and cause stir on the campaign trail today. speaker gingrich was asked about it numerous times. >> i am not going to say anything about marianne. my two daughters have already written to abc complaining about this as tawdry and inappropriate. i have been very open about my life. very open about the mistakesvy made and open about needing to go to god for forgiveness and seek reconciliation? >> bret: what about this? we have two panels on the

campaign trail. this is first first one. jonah goldberg, national review online. juan williams, columnist with the hill. syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. jonah this is not new ground. for marianne gingrich. the big story dominating the early part was rick perry coming out, dropping out and endorsing like he did newt gingrich. >> it was a wild day. the internet blackout was yesterday and it feel like it was three months ago. santorum won the iowa caucus this morning. the perry thing is big news. i don't think it's a lot of big news that perry supports will go to gingrich. i don't think perry had a lot of support to go to gingrich but it does create a sense of gelling around gingrich as the not romney, the conservative a terptive to romney at precisely a moment where people are forgetting today romney has had a bad week. i don't think he had a good debate.

the fox debate was not a good debate for romney and he has had the gaffes. tax things and the rest. people are unsure with romney. he just lost the iowa caucuses. and gingrich is getting the surge as the alternative to him. it helps, even in perverse way, the marianne gingrich stuff fuels that everybody is talking about gingrich right now. >> bret: i was going to take the second panel and deal with the iowa caucuses but gets to the moment of the craziness of the day in the rick santorum, the g.o.p. in iowa, comes to the end and they are missing eight precincts. the votes there. but the vote counting shows him up 34. rick santorum. there was a back and forth. what about this day? put it in perspective? >> first, are you angry that you stayed up all night waiting for results? >> bret: one more hour. maybe we could have gotten there. i don't know. >> gosh, i don't think it's great news for the iowa g.o.p.

it looks terrible. but it seems like it's too late to be of assistance to rick santorum. santorum got the big endorsement this past weekend from some of the evangelical leaders in the country. again, does not seem to have boosted him. he doesn't seem to have gained traction in south carolina. at the moment, it seems that in this dynamic, he is a threat by taking nine to 10% we saw in the polls you put up to give the south carolina contest to mitt romney because those votes you imagine would come directly from newt gingrich. >> bret: okay. we will talk about the polls right here. a couple of new ones. american research group, arg. this has gingrich up 33%. romney, 32%. ron paul at 19%. santorum at 9%. then you have rasmussen out today. this also has gingrich at 33%. romney at 31%. paul at 15%. santorum at 11%. now the average of the most

recent polls, this includes a few from before the debate and the ones that popped in the past couple of days, as romney and gingrich neck this neck. put in perspective, the gingrich day. the good side, bad side, and the impact. just this close to the primary. charles? >> well, i think number one, iowa will have no effect on romney or santorum. it's result of a tie. everybody assumed. and he has eight precincts missing and you absolutely announce you have no idea how it ended up. it has no effect. the endorsement by perry was important. you think from numbers it wouldn't be. perry is down to about 4%. people, they have actually been polled, perry supporters in the past. the second choice is evenly split among santorum and gingrich and romney. so it would have no effect mathematically on gingrich, romney race.

second, the gingrich numbers as we saw in the polls, are rising rapidly. at the same time in the days, the perry numbers were collapsing, which would imply that a lot of the gingrich numbers, the new additional supporters were already coming out of perry supporters. so in terms of the numbers it doesn't look important. but jonah is right, candidate is rising -- gingrich is rising -- and then you get a sudden endorsement of a competitor, i think et does have an effect. lastly, the one effect that perry endorsement has is the blunt, the negative effect of the marianne story. in one way it will say if he climbed on board a ship that's already having all of this trouble, it can't be as bad as i thought. also stole some of the oxygen out of the story. >> bret: there aren't a lot of new things in that story.

but hearing her on camera is a little bit different environment. is there potential here for at least in the short-term a backlash that this is coming out two days before a primary? and some rallying around the candidate, even though in the long-term it may be detrimental? >> what is new is the video. we have someone saying things, the horse's mouth. not to be dre dragtory. that is new and real. i think there is a sense that abc news should haven't done this. contrast with the way $60 minutes" let him put his infidelitys behind him before the primary in 1992. here is abc saying let's tank this guy before a critical primary. at the same time, it will be out there. she wanted to do this. she clearly came forward. had a problem with how do we sit on this? it may not be a clear her-gingrich thing, there may be a backlash. there is a sense that newt is the anti-media candidate from

the beginning of this. >> bret: last thing here, juan, the debate tonight. it's going to be interesting how this whole thing is dealt with. and just four on the stage. >> just four on the stage. it could mean that there has to be more fireworks because to see santorum and gingrich in competition with each other as well as romney. >> bret: more on the campaign and the other campaigns as the battle for south carolina heats up. keep it here. wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee!

we can win elections. we can organize. we can put together an effort to pull our -- pull resources together to be able to be successful. at being the person to defeat mitt romney, because guess

what? we defeated mitt romney in iowa. >> he is giving a speech today. guess where he is giving the speech? fantasy land. he may bump in to speaker gingrich down there in fantasy land. >> it's true in a free society. if you have a freedom you might make mistakes but the whole thing is it's bet you make mistakes and suffer consequences than the politician makes a mistake and everybody suffering. >> bret: sounds from the trail today. an interesting note as we talked about in the first panel, the iowa caucus win for rick santorum, even though it wasn't official-official. the santorum campaign said that governor romney called senator santorum and congratulated him. campaign then took that to be a concession. then the romney campaign put out a statem saying it was not a -- statement saying it was not a concession, he was just calling to congratulate santorum. that's where we were on that. back with the panel. jonah? >> my apologies for blowing up the organization here. [ laughter ] the way i took the romney thing is maybe they think that sort of the olympics, three

tiers that they were congratulating santorum for joining him on the gold pedestal or something like that. i disagree a little bit from charles with the iowa thing in particular, i think the fudging out of what happened happened in iowa looks bad for romney. now romney only has one win in the state of new hampshire, where he is a favorite son and campaigned for six years. it makes him look weaker and loss of a juggernaut than a few days ago now. we are going to south carolina where i think newt gingrich has a good shot and the odds on favorite to beat romney. which means he set up a romney versus gingrich battle for the states ahead. >> bret: this is-go ahead. >> i disagree on iowa. if the state republican officials announce that the ballots are missing and we will never have them or know the outcome, then you can't have a concession and you can't have a winner or loser.

what you have is what we had at the beginning. essentially a tie. i think it alters nothing. santorum has to make sure he doesn't finish last. if he does behind paul he has to step away. >> bret: quickly as we do a popotperi of topics. santorum was leading romney by double digits, bumpy road at the beginning. some say if he had delivered the speech today and had debate performances that he had at the beginning it would have been a different race. >> he showed why it's important to start out in the minor leagues. normally the candidates spend six months out before the debate and before he goes national where he works out all the kinks and develops a speech and knows how to answer stuff. perry didn't. he started major league level in the all-star game and had

trouble at the beginning. i think by getting out the way he did now, before he would have ended up last in the state that he really ought to do well in, i think he sort of saved himself. as well as the way he performed in the last debate. and last month. he was stronger. he had become a laughing stock after the oops moment he had. but i think he redeemed himself. though he slightly diminished i think he returns home with his dignity restore and he can be and he will be i think a candidate again in the future. >> bret: i mean, arguably that speech today was well delivered, juan, and -- >> it's all about money. i think he gets out now he still has some of his money. he was the biggest spender in iowa and came in fifth. so now he still has the money on hand. he can use it in terms of creating some kind of pac or effort, but i think you know what, he is diminished. i don't think there is getting away from it. his wife is pushing him and she wanted a dignified exit

and got it today. >> bret: going back to charles about the battle here, as you look at the polls if it shapes up like this on saturday, this one-two battle, romney/gingrich or gingrich/romney, whichever, and then santorum/paul. who finishes third? >> it's really damaging to santorum if he loses. it looks like according to the polls he will come in behind ron paul, who has not by the way been aggressive in the campaigning in south carolina. but again, i come back to this point. at this junkture, it looks like santorum versus gingrich to be the anti-romney. santorum is the one who has not gained traction. gary bauer endorsed him but it didn't work with the south carolina audience. the power and punch has all come, as i know well, from newt gingrich. >> bret: thompson endorsed today which is a big deal in the evangelical community. >> but it has a feeling -- i talk to people in south carolina today. it has feeling that santorum is just fading behind. he doesn't have the buzz. what is interesting if he gets

out or loses in fourth, all of the evangelicals that support santorum it's not like they flock to romney. it is shaping up to be romney -- >> what happened in 2008? mccain won by the evangelical splitting their vote. >> bret: it should be an interesting saturday. we'll have it all covered. that is it for the panel. stay tuned for review of a change we made monday night. [ male announcer ] say goodbye to "ho-hum," and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got...

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you should know that just one dose of children's advil gives up to eight hours of fever relief. allowing your little one to get back to building a better afternoon. children's advil. relief you can trust. >> bret: finally tonight, monday night we hosted a fiery debate in myrtle beach. at times we decided to let the candidates have some breathing room to confront each other on various topics. but at times the candidates did not obey the time limits. in past fox news debates candidates wrap up their answers with a doorbell chime or digital beep. monday night's debate we employed a different